


one step in front of the other

by forever_and_always



Series: where the heart is [6]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Andrew runs a group home, Foster Care, Group Homes, I promise this fic isn't as angsty as the tags make it sound, Kid Fic, M/M, Older Andrew Minyard, Older Neil Josten, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Violence, Protective Andrew Minyard, Raven Neil Josten, Soft Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard, Teen Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 08:30:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18117101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/forever_and_always/pseuds/forever_and_always
Summary: Exy's still a no-go so Neil finds other ways to fill his days.Or:Neil bonds with one of the kids, and his relationship with Andrew takes another step in the right direction.





	one step in front of the other

**Author's Note:**

> For anyone new, it'd probably help to read the other parts first. For anyone returning, thank you so much,,,,
> 
> In case you're worried about potential triggers, more detailed warnings are at the end. You can skip from after Sarah thanks Neil to the next section break if needed. 
> 
> All mistakes are mine.

Six weeks after his injury and three weeks since he reluctantly went back to his quiet apartment in the city, he still wasn’t able to fully rejoin his team, which made everything worse. Neil had to return to Atlanta eventually, his seniority on the team and sway over the coaching staff and management team only lasted so long. If he couldn’t be with Andrew, then he at least wanted to have Exy again. But until the doctors and coaches said it was okay for him to have full contact, he was restricted to supervised workouts and special training sessions with others on the injured reserve list. 

A younger Neil would have fought to be back on the court as soon as possible, and an even younger Neil would have been expected to play despite his injuries, but he wasn’t so young anymore. And though he wasn’t necessarily old, his body was still aging and paying him back for decades of recklessness. Injuries took longer to heal. Aches and pains came and went as they pleased. One more bad move and the choice to end his career could be taken from him. Plus he would never hear the end of it from Kevin, and now Andrew too. 

Somehow Neil and Andrew made it work, whatever  _ it _ was between them. When Neil was cleared for screen time, he was never far from his phone for the first time in his life, in case Andrew messaged him. He even had a contact information saved for Madelyn and the other kids, and they never failed to entertain him. So he wasn’t surprised when he had messages from Andrew waiting for him when he woke up. 

_ Don’t forget kids have break this week and expect you at the house. Aaron backed out on visiting.  _

_ Taze and Levi picked the Zoo first.   _

He couldn’t the little smile that crossed his face from the reminder that there were people, a person, who wanted him. Who wanted him to be a part of them, to make plans for future dates. The kids had talked about what they wanted to do over their Thanksgiving break for weeks, each one of them having a day decide what to do. Madelyn would be back home too for the few days she had off, and Andrew’s twin and his wife had made tentative plans to join the rest of the house for dinner. Neil would fully admit he was relieved to not have to face possible questioning from Aaron. He knew he would have to deal with Aaron and the rest of the former Foxes eventually, but he hoped to push it off for as long as possible. 

**_have next three days off_ **

**_will there by noon_ **

Neil hit send and went in search of a duffel bag. 

The drive to Andrew’s house was easy, and it was made even easier by the fact that Neil was able to drive himself and didn’t have to depend on anyone for transportation. There wasn’t much traffic as he left the city, and he appreciated how the view outside his window gradually shifted from urban landscapes to solid blocks of undeveloped nature. 

As always, Andrew was waiting for him on the front porch, arms crossed and face set in an expression that didn’t give away how he was really feeling. Neil wouldn’t have wanted his greeting any other way. 

“Come on,” Andrew said as Neil got out of his car. “We’re leaving as soon as lunch is over.” 

Neil followed the other man inside and set his bag down to be dealt with later. By then Neil was familiar enough with the house to know the clamor he was hearing was coming from the direction of the kitchen, and his suspicions were confirmed when Andrew led him straight there. Everyone was gathered around the table or the island, the remnants of sandwich-making scattered around the normally spotless counter tops. He aimed for the empty seat next to Robin at the island bar and tried not to flush under the enthusiastic attention of when the kids in the house realized he’d arrived.

Andrew took advantage of the moment to catch everyone’s attention. “Now that Neil is here-” 

“Woo! Neil!” shouted Levi. 

Missy had to catch the back of his shirt to prevent the boy from completely falling out of his chair. 

“As I was saying,” Andrew continued, “We’re leaving soon. Cecil and Dell, you two are on clean-up duty, and while they’re doing that, everyone needs to figure out what car you’re riding in.” 

Andrew left them to their debates and came to stand in front of Neil by the kitchen counter. Neil smiled under Andrew’s gaze, and he caught Andrew’s subtle smile in response before the blonde turned his back. 

\---

Getting everyone from the house to the Zoo had been surprisingly low-conflict. The kids decided between themselves relatively easily who would be riding with whom, as Neil and Andrew watched them from the other end of the kitchen. In the end they settled on Madelyn, Missy, and Sarah going with Renee, Robin, and the baby, while all the boys would go with Andrew and Neil.

Neil was also relieved to see everyone in a good mood, an excursion to the city and a break from school helping to lifts spirits. Cecil and Missy hadn’t bickered once during the time Neil had been there. Levi was his usual energetic self. Sarah participated in the conversation more than she normally did. Dell was smiling, and Taze looked content to be surrounded by his friends. Neil hoped it would last. 

Before they loaded into the SUVs, Andrew made them all, check to see if they had everything they needed, and Neil was reminded just how impressive Andrew was. Not everyone could do what he did with such authority and respect for those he cared for. 

They hadn’t made it far into the park, their ragtag group of children, adults, and Exy star, lead by a short angry looking man in all black, when Sarah stopped and let out a pained gasp, gripping the side of her protruding belly. Neil was the closest to her and reached out an arm for support, but waited for her permission before touching her. When she nodded, he gently placed his good arm around her shoulders, steering her towards the closest bench to sit.  

“Are you okay?” he asked. 

She was silent for a moment as she ran her hands across her stomach. “Yeah, I think so.”  
By that time others in their group realized Sarah and Neil weren’t with the rest of them. Andrew, with his face set in a neutral position, rushed to them as fast as he could without giving away his obvious concern. Renee was quick to follow with a bottle of water, leaving Patrick’s stroller in Robin’s hands. The kids stayed back too. A variety of emotions crossed their faces. 

“What happened,” demanded Andrew, sounding more worried than angry. He crouched on the ground in front of the girl while Renee took the empty spot on the bench. 

“I think it was just a false contraction,” replied Sarah. She looked a little less panicked now that Andrew was there. “The pain stopped when I sat down. I was warned that they could start happening at my last appointment.” 

Renee handed her the bottle of water. “You’re far enough along for those.”

“Do we need to leave?” asked Andrew. 

Sarah shook her head.

“Do you want one of us to stay here with you?” he asked instead. 

“Yes,” she replied. 

“Okay, Renee go Neil and Robin and take the kids through the rest of the animals. I’ll stay-”

“Wait.” Sarah interrupted. She paused under the sudden attention of the three adults around her. “I want Neil to stay with me.” 

Andrew’s attention turned to Neil. “Is that good with you?” 

Neil was flattered that Sarah trusted him at such a vulnerable time for her. “Yeah, I can stay here with her.”  

“Drink all of that and call me the moment anything changes. Okay?” 

“Okay.” 

He stood and looked down at Neil and Sarah on the bench. Neil could tell he was reluctant to leave, but knew he would do it anyway, for himself and for Sarah. Down the path, the pair joined Robin and the kids, and Neil watched Andrew vaguely explain what happened as he corralled the kids farther away to give Sarah additional space to relax. 

Their bench was on the backside of an animal’s enclosure and protected from the sun by a patch of trees. And Neil was content to sit in silence while Sarah sipped slowly on the bottle of water and worked through whatever she clearly wanted to say. 

“Thank you for staying with me,” she eventually settled on. 

“You could have picked someone more qualified if this turned into an emergency,” he tried to joke, “but thank you for trusting me.” 

Sarah screwed the top on to the bottle and sighed. “I picked you because you’re the only person who treats me like I’m normal. Robin acts all weird sometimes, and Renee just hovers over me all the time. And Andrew tries to protect me from everything, but it’s a little late for that.” 

She stared ruefully at her belly, but didn’t continue. 

Neil looked long enough, he could see a subtle outward dent from the baby moving. It couldn’t have been comfortable. He didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything. 

After a minute or two of the air between them being filled with the ambient sounds from the zoo, Sarah quietly asked, “What was your life like at my age?”

Neil hadn’t really thought about his life as Nathaniel in a long time. 

“I was property of a powerful yakuza family and used to keep my mob boss father in line.” he said honestly. There was no point sugar coating anything. If a child was in Andrew’s care, Neil knew they understood the horrors that existed in the world. “My mother tried to get me away from everything when she found out what was going to happen, but we only lasted a month running before the Moriyamas caught up. By the time I was seventeen, I had been beaten everyday into the Exy champion they wanted me to be. I was waiting to take my spot on the Edgar Allen Ravens and competing against Kevin Day to be Riko’s number two.” 

“How did you get out.” 

“Kevin and I were sent to recruit this hotshot goalie who had signed with the Foxes in Palmetto.”

“Andrew,” Sarah said.

“Yeah, Andrew. When he refused Riko’s offer, I thought he was an idiot for giving up a chance at fame and for saying no to someone like Riko. It wasn’t until Riko broke Kevin’s hand and Kevin escaped that I understood that soon he would turn on me too. So I made sure the Moriyamas knew how much of a risk he was to the family and paid the rest of my debts to them. Now I’m here.” 

He didn’t feel like getting into the particulars of exactly how Neil Josten came into existence. That was for another time.  

“I came out to my mom and stepdad last spring and things seemed to be okay.” Sarah’s voice cracked and tears began to threaten to form. “But then a few weeks later my mom left for a work conference, and my stepdad-” 

“You don’t have to tell me,” Neil rushed to say. 

She took a deep breath and wrapped her arms around herself. “No, I want you to know.” 

“Okay.”  Hearing her confession was unexpected, but he wasn’t going to stop her if it was what she wanted. 

“He came into my room one night when she was gone and started yelling at me, claiming I said I was a lesbian for attention. He said he’d prove I wasn’t attracted to girls, and then he raped me.” She had to pause, but managed to keep the tears at bay. “I hid at my friend’s house the rest of the weekend. When my mom came home, I told her what happened, thinking she would’ve done something about it, but she accused me of lying. She asked my stepdad what happened, and he said that I seduced him, that I’d been planning it for weeks, and she believed him because she didn’t want to believe that I’m a lesbian.” 

She began to sob and turned to hide her face in Neil’s shoulder as she cried. Neil let her seek the comfort she need, Andrew’s voice echoing in his head reminding him about boundaries and respect. He glared at any one who passed by their shaded alcove and stared judgmental at the scene they were no doubt creating. 

After a while the tears petered off, until Neil could only hear sniffling sounds. Sarah raised her head off his shoulder and she wiped her shirt sleeve across her face and tucked her loose hair behind her ears. 

“I’m sorry for getting so upset. Hormones, you know.” She gave him a weak smile. 

“Don’t let Andrew hear you say that. Or Renee for that matter, unless you want a lecture.” 

That made her smile a little more genuinely. “Trust me, I’ve already heard it, from my therapist and the midwife too.” 

Sarah’s eyes were still red and puffy, but she looked more settled.

Neil handed her the discarded water bottle and watched as she took a long sip.  

“Since I’ve already cried, can I tell you something else?” she asked. 

“If you want to.”

She set down the water bottle and looked him in the eye. “I’m really scared right now, about everything.” 

“Have you told anyone else this?”

“Yeah, my therapist and the midwife. It’s just that I spent so much time being afraid of what was going to happen to be, and then I was so angry, and now I’m just scared. This baby is coming soon, and I can’t do anything about it, and then I have to deal my court case and judges and see the people who did this to me, and I just wanted to be a normal high school kid and go to prom and-” 

“Hey,” Neil said before she could work herself up into hyperventilating. “It’s okay to be scared.” God knows no one told him that when he was going through his own hell. “Andrew would never let anything bad happen to you while you’re under his protect, and now you have me too.” 

“Thanks, Neil. That actually makes me feel better,” replied Sarah. She shifted on the seat of the bench in an attempt to find a more comfortable position and seemed to mindlessly tap her fingers across the top of her stomach. 

“Do...uh...do you think we can get something to eat?” she continued. “All that crying made me hungry.” 

“Sure.” Neil stood and patted his pockets for his wallet, and to take out his phone to let Andrew know they were moving locations. He reached out a hand to help Sarah up. “Sweet or salty?”

“Definitely sweet.”

 

\---

 

Andrew appeared by the side of the couch in the den. 

“Sarah told me what you two talked about,” he said.

Neil and Sarah had spent the rest of the afternoon at the food vendors’ area of the zoo, eating cotton candy and soft pretzels with cinnamon sugar icing before the rest of the group rejoined them also wanting a snack before they left. When their caravan made it back to the house, it was early enough in the evening to get a start on dinner. The kids dispersed throughout the house until it was time to eat, and the minute the meal was done, they disappeared again. Madelyn to the basement to practice, Sarah to her room to turn in early for night, Missy and Cecil to wherever they spent time when they weren’t fighting, and the younger boys piled into the den to watch the Exy game that was on. But now it was late, and all the kids had gone to the rooms for the night. 

Andrew and Neil were finally alone. 

“I should thank you,” Andrew continued, taking a step closer to Neil. "Thank you." 

“I didn’t really do anything,” he replied. 

“You made Sarah feel safe in a stressful situation and didn’t break her trust. Not everyone would have done that.” 

“Oh.” 

“Yeah, _oh_.” 

Andrew now stood directly in front of him, slightly towering over him because Neil was sitting. “Come to bed with me,” he said. 

It took a second for Neil to understand what Andrew meant. Every time before when Neil spent the night at the house, he slept in the spare room in the basement. 

“Are you sure?” Neil asked. 

“Don’t be an idiot,” replied Andrew. “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t want this.” 

“Okay.” He stood and noticed Andrew had his forgotten duffel bag slung over his shoulder. 

Andrew headed for the stairs without another word, and Neil followed. He had only spent a few minutes on the second floor of the house, where the kids’ bedrooms were, out of respect for privacy, but treading up the next flight of stairs behind Andrew was the first time he’d even been up to the top most level of the house. It was where Madelyn and Andrew’s rooms were, the most private part of the house.

Neil didn’t know exactly what he expected to see inside Andrew’s room, but what he saw made sense. The room was minimalistic and well-kept. There was thick carpeting that muffled the sound of his and Andrew’s footsteps, a large bed pushed far away from the windows, a heavy desk with a discarded laptop, a few short bookshelves stuffed with books and trinkets. The walls were a soft grey. Neil liked it, liked it more than the master bedroom at his apartment in Atlanta.  

Andrew dropped Neil’s bag at the foot of the bed and stood “beside it with his arms loosely crossed, and the rest of his body looked as relaxed as it could be for Andrew in the moment. 

“Are you going to stand in the doorway all night?” asked Andrew.  

Neil lurched forward towards Andrew making sure the door was securely shut behind him.

Andrew met him the rest of the way but didn’t touch. “I need to hear you say it. Yes or no?” 

“Yes.” Neil had never said more truthful. 

“Where can I touch you,” Andrew said, and Neil remember why after a decade they still wore their armbands more often than not.

“Anything over the clothes is fine. And you?”

“Nothing below the shoulders.”

Neil nodded and found himself asking if he could kiss Andrew without thinking about it. 

Andrew’s reply came in the response of taking one last step towards Neil and firmly bringing their lips together. 

His first conscious thought was of his own chapped lips but then that melted away when Andrew slid his hands up his sides and pulled Neil in until their legs hit the edge of the bed. He let Andrew take the lead on deepening the kiss, enjoying how it spread warmth down the length of his body. It was unfortunate when they had to break to get a full lungful of air. 

In the low light, Andrew’s pupils were blown and only a thin ring of molten gold remain. He already looked wrecked from Neil’s hands finding their way into Andrew’s hair, and Neil was sure he looked the same.   

“I don’t know what to do,” confessed Neil in the quiet pause. 

Andrew pulled back and dropped his hands from where they were on Neil’s ribs. “What do you mean you ‘don’t know what to do?’” 

“I’ve never done anything like this,” he said and wished he still felt the warmth from Andrew’s touch on his body. “I’ve never  _ cared _ enough about something like this.” 

The man in front of him raised an eyebrow but said, “If you’re not comfortable, we can stop.” 

“I don’t want to stop.” 

Instead of diving back in like Neil imagined was going to happen, he watched as Andrew turned around and headed for the chest of drawers next to the closet. Andrew took out two items and threw them at Neil. They were a fade orange t-shirt with the Foxes logo rubbed almost completely off and a worn-thin pair of sweatpants. 

“What are these for?” asked Neil.

“Sleeping.”

“I brought clothes to sleep in.”

“So?” From Andrew’s tone, it was useless to argue. “You can change in the bathroom, if you’re uncomfortable. It’s across the hall.”

“Are we not going to continue where we left off?” 

“No,” he said. “We’re going to sleep.”

“But-”Andrew hadn’t even offered anything beyond a touch on top of clothes since they started whatever they had together. 

“We’re going to revisit this once we’ve had at least five hours of sleep, then we can spend the rest of our lives figuring this out. Now go change.” 

Neil took the bundle of clothes, leaving for the bathroom without another word. He crossed paths with Madelyn in the hallway and tried not to react when she smirked at him and smiled widely. Impressing Andrew’s daughter was important to Neil, but this wasn’t the situation he wanted to do it in. In the privacy behind the closed door of the bathroom, Neil took a moment to breathe deeply and calm his rapidly beating heart. Then he dressed in the clothes Andrew gave him, breathed in again to the scent of laundry detergent and something that was uniquely and purely Andrew, and he didn’t bother keeping his armbands on. Andrew was right, they had so much time to figure things out. 

Andrew was in bed when Neil returned. All the lights were turned off except for the lamp Andrew could reach from his position. He studied Neil in his borrowed clothes and looked too pleased with himself.  

Neil crawled into the empty space left for him, resting his head on the space pillow and being careful not to touch Andrew. 

The light switched off, and Neil remained rigid until he felt another armband-less arm reach across his waist and pull him close. 

“Goodnight, Neil,” said Andrew’s voice from the darkness. 

“Goodnight, Andrew.” Neil closed his eyes and didn’t remember falling asleep. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> So in the part when the group arrives at the Zoo, Sarah has a false contraction and it scares her. While she's resting with Neil, she asks about his childhood and Neil tells her some of his past with the Moriyamas and it follows some of the canonical abuse he suffers. Then Sarah tells Neil parts of how she ended up with Andrew and pregnant, which includes homophobia and rape by a parental figure. You can skip from after Sarah thanks Neil to the next section break if needed. 
> 
> On a happier note, I still have several ideas for this story including: more backstory on Andrew, Madelyn, and their house & Christmas with the Foxes with an additional surprise! Let me know if there's anything specific you'd like to see!
> 
> And as always you can come hang out with me on tumblr @moonywaitup


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